Cutting the packing strap off freed the seal
At 8 am
the morning of May 8, with the sun lighting the sky but not yet over the hills,
a team of marine mammal rescuers climbed down on to the beach among the Piedras
Blancas elephant seals. Within the hour, the seal, a plastic packing strap
tight around its neck, was freed from his entanglement.
He turned
to argue with a neighboring seal, and they sparred.
“Our
entangled seal – we called him Rabble -- ended up squabbling with another male
as we left the beach,” said team leader Aliah Meza, operations manager of The
Marine Mammal Center’s San Luis Obispo Operations site in Morro Bay.
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| Rabble couldn't resist starting a fight. Photo by Laurie Miller © The Marine Mammal Center, NOAA permit #24359 |
Docents
see him on the beach
The
entangled seal was first reported by Friends of the Elephant Seal docents on
April 27. The seal was on the north beach at the Piedras Blancas elephant seal
viewpoint, crowded among other seals.
 |
| Docents saw him and reported the problem. (Christine Heinrichs photo) |
“These
situations are life-threatening to the animals,” she said. “If we did not
intervene, that animal would not survive.”
As soon as
she had reports and photos of the seal, Meza began planning how to rescue it.
Photos help her determine what the seal is entangled in, the size and condition
of the seal, what’s on the surrounding beach.
"We
have experience from the last few years of going on to beaches with active
rookeries,” she said. “We felt pretty prepared.”
The
plastic packing strap is a common entanglement. Meza has removed packing straps
from other seals, using a clipper. This
one looked especially tight, though. Difficult to get a clipper between the
skin and the strap.
“We have a
lot of natural history with the Piedras Blancas rookery,” she said. “We knew he
was going to be on the beach for a while, molting.”
Planning
to get among the seals
The beach
is crowded with seals in May, more than even during the breeding season. Around
5,000 adult females are in the rookery, which extends from north of the Piedras
Blancas light station to about a mile south of the viewpoint. Thousands of
juvenile seals, both males and females are also on the beach at this time.
They are
there to molt, the skin peeling off in pieces. The seals need to be out of the
water, on the sand, to allow their new skin to emerge. Visitors can handle
pieces of skin from FES docents, identified by their blue jackets, at the
viewpoint.
Meza
decided that it would be best to sedate him, to give the team the best chance
of success. Associate Veterinarian Heather Harris would inject the seal with
sedative to immobilize him.
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| Rabble resists the efforts of the team to corral him. Photo by Laurie Miller © The Marine Mammal Center, NOAA permit #24359 |
Dr. Harris
and Meza estimated the seal’s weight from the photos, to determine the proper
drug dosage: enough to settle him, without drugging him too long. Every rescue
is a balancing act between too little and too much.
This seal
weighed about 190-200 kg, 420-440 lbs. Sedating him also meant they would have
to bring a team to prevent him from escaping to the ocean before the drug took
effect.
With the
seal sedated, they could cut the strap off and then examine the wound, to see
how deep it was, and whether it needed further treatment.
Finding
one seal among thousands
As she
made those plans in April, the seal slipped away. Docents searched for him, but
no sign. Until Friday, May 2. There he was, this time on the south beach. He
was still there on Wednesday, May 7, shifting around, moving toward the cool
edge of the water on a warm day.
Meza got
the plan ready and assembled the team of staff and volunteers to go on Thursday
morning.
She had
cleared it with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has
jurisdiction over the beach, within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
She notified State Parks, which handles the viewpoint and the docent program.
“If we’re
going to go down on the beach and disturb other seals to help one with a
life-threatening injury, we want to have the highest chance of success,” she
said.
The
team goes into action
The team
left the Morro Bay site at 6 am, and arrived at the viewpoint by 7. By 8, they
were climbing down onto the beach.
“Being on
the south beach worked in our favor,” she said. “There’s more beach there, to
give us more space between us and the animals on the beach.”
Early
morning means fewer visitors and less potential for disruption. The team included
safety officers and communications people to take photos and video, write
notes, and speak to the public.
“We have
someone to communicate what’s going on,” she said. “It’s a public viewing
area.”
Four team
members with boards stood between the seal and the water, to prevent the seal
from escaping. Others with boards pressed the seals around the target seal to
move away. They complained, but weren’t aggressive. During this part of their
year, they have no reason to be.
“There was
no risk to mom-pup pairs, and no dominant adult males on beach,” she said. “Generally,
they didn’t mind us.”
Sedating
the seal
With the
target seal isolated from the others, Meza and Dr. Harris had space to inject
the seal. They used a pole syringe, to keep some distance from the seal, who
had raised up and was waving his head around and vocalizing.
The
syringe worked on the first try. He was soon overcome by the drug, and they
could go to work.
First,
they cut the strap off. It wasn’t as tight as it was two weeks before. The seal
had lost some weight. Seals don’t eat while they are on the beach. Molting
seals lose about a quarter of their weight during the four weeks or so they are
on the beach molting.
In
Rabble’s case, that 2 cm, less than an inch, made removing the packing strap
easier.
The strap
hadn’t yet cut into any vital organs. The cut was superficial, through the skin
and into blubber, but will heal on its own. Rabble will have the scar forever,
though.
They took
blood and rectal samples, and gave him two orange flipper tags. Pups born on
Piedras Blancas get white flipper tags, but seals that are rehabbed get orange
tags.
Tracking
Rabble
Docents will
continue to watch for Rabble and his two orange tags. He was at the beginning
of his molt, so will be on the beach for several more weeks. Those tags will
identify him in the future as well.
“It will
be great to track this animal,” Meza said. “Unfortunately, these packing straps
are common entanglements. While I was on the beach, I saw another seal with a
scar. We might see that one again and be able to identify it.”
After The
Tribune published the story of Necklace, who was also entangled in a packing
strap, in May 2024, a Cambria restaurant owner approached me and said that he
gets a lot of supplies with packing straps, and that he would never again throw
one away without cutting it.
“The impact
of plastic and ocean trash on these animals is severe,” Meza said. “That’s why
NOAA gives us permission for these special responses. We can all make an impact.
The more we know, the more we can do to help.”
Christine
Heinrichs is SLO At Large Member of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
Advisory Council. Her elephant seal column won first place from the National
Society of Newspaper Columnists in 2024. Learn
more at her elephant seal Substack at (5) Elephant Seals | Christine Heinrichs | Substack